St. Louis (KSDK) - A 16-year-old died in a crash that trapped several people in north St. Louis Tuesday afternoon.

Police say a Pontiac Grand Am was carrying five males in their late teens hit a tree while traveling at a high rate of speed on Riverview Boulevard around 2:30 p.m.

One person was ejected from the vehicle.

D'Angelo Johnson died in the crash. He was the driver.

The four passengers were still hospitalized Wednesday morning.

"Our bond was just so close I don't even think of them as friends I look at them as family," said Michael Williams who says he knows two of the boys inside the car.

Williams says every afternoon he would meet up with many friends including two inside the car and they would play basketball. He learned of the accident when he was waiting for his friends to meet up.

"I don't know which way to feel like, there's just so many thoughts going through my head I don't know what to think," said Williams.

"It is as horrific as a scene can get, where you have to use the Jaws of Life to get them out," said Lieutenant Ryan Cousins of the St. Louis Metro Police Department. "It was confirmed by witnesses that they were racing and that's what probably contributed to the accident."

Riverview Boulevard reopened in both directions just before 5 p.m. Accident reconstruction cleared the scene.